Earlier today, I linked to a Christian Science Monitor report that the firearms industry had begun to organize in opposition to the recent push for increased gun control, but that the major manufacturers had not yet committed themselves. That situation has changed, reports the Washington Post, at least in Maryland, where Beretta makes it home --- at least for now. The company has begun considering a relocation of its headquarters to a state where its product hasn't been made illegal, and may take hundreds of jobs with them:

Beretta, the nearly 500-year-old family-owned company that made one of James Bonds firearms, has already invested more than $1 million in the machine and has planned to expand its plant further in Prince Georges County to ramp up production.

But under an assault-weapons ban that advanced late last week in the Maryland General Assembly, experts say the gun would be illegal in the state where it is produced.

Now Beretta is weighing whether the rifle line, and perhaps the company itself, should stay in a place increasingly hostile toward its products. Its iconic 9mm pistol  carried by every U.S. soldier and scores of police departments  would also be banned with its high capacity, 13-bullet magazine.

Why expand in a place where the people who built the gun couldnt buy it? said Jeffrey Reh, general counsel for Beretta.

On the line: at least 300 jobs in Maryland’s Prince George County. That’s enough to worry even Governor Martin O’Malley’s Democratic allies in the state legislature. The Post’s Aaron Davis gets the president of the state Senate, Thomas Miller, to admit that he’s “concerned” about a possible move to “places a lot more friendly to the company than this state.” In the lower chamber, the Democrat representing the district, Del. Joseph Vallario, told the Post that “we want to keep those jobs.” Vallario’s chairing the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, so he has some influence on that outcome, but so far the bill doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Beretta general counsel Jeffrey Reh reminded the legislature that Beretta once moved a significant facility to Virginia the last time the state tried this, and that the next time might be the last:

I think they thought we were bluffing in the 1990s, Reh said. But Berettas dont bluff.

For obvious reasons, Beretta would like to stay put. Moving any kind of business costs money, and manufacturing more than most, and the disruption to production will be considerable. Given the history of hostility toward guns and gun manufacturing by the state’s political class, though, it might end up being costlier to stay than to leave. Reh told the Post that the Italian owner recently visited the facility, and when briefed on the law, told Reh, “There always seems to be a problem with Maryland.”

No company will put up with that forever, and few would stay in a state where most of their product line couldn’t be sold.

No, he doesn't know the difference. And anyone who doesn't know the difference shouldn't be posting on this forum. Bullets are to cartridges as flour is to bread as cement is to concrete, etceteras. They may not have the capability of learning the language.

The tax vulture LIBs already have in Maryland ( THE Freak state). When we left that LIB hellhole last year we had to pay 3.5 % "exit" tax on the sale of our house. It was well worth it. May everyone who is not a moonbat asshat leave that crummy jurisdiction.

Get out of Marxist Maryland, run by Marxists O’Malley and Miller, two betrayers of a once great state.

Come to Virginia where we are still free, though most black, Hispanic and white liberals voted into office Tim Kaine (as governor and now senator), Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Jim Moran, his brother Brian, red-green state senator Addam Ebin, now Rep. Gerald Connelly (who missed his real place in history by a couple decades, Nazi Germany), and a couple loud-mouthed jerks down in the Tidewater region.

Illegal Hispanic immigrants have more power in ultra-liberal Montgomery County through their tax-payer funded Casa de Maryland than does the average working man or woman of any group. Casa gave us the far-left Dept. of Justice thug Perez, head of the Civil Rights Division, a man who never met a white middle-class person he didn’t hate.

Get out of Maryland and let it sink deeper into the economic and political cesspool it is now in. Maybe in the future, when the people realize that they have hit bottom, some will wake up and throw off the marxists and their political cronies.

I was born and raised in Baltimore. Used to know honest politicians back in the old days. Now I wouldn’t know where to find one. We used to call Maryland “The Free State”. Not anymore.

Just try to protect yourself against the rising tide of criminals and you’ll learn why you are no longer “free”. Try to live a safe life in Prince Georges County. It ain’t gonna happen. Their unofficial slogan to potential newcomers is, “Come to PG County and die!”

Here in Virginia, we don’t put up with that shit despite the liberals wanting to import it.

"If FR were solely a firearms forum, I'd agree with you, but it's not. There are over three hundred thousand people with Freeper accounts, and not all of them have basic firearms education."

I do not concur with your position. People with less than average knowledge about a subject should not post opinions or erroneous facts about that subject on any forum. They should lurk and learn rather than add confusion and misinformation.

To let misinformation on this forum to go uncorrected is akin to not correcting your children's grammar or language.

Smith and Wesson collapsed into a pile of compromise to the Clinton Administration...and they paid for it.

I guess gun makers learned their lesson about selling out the second amendment for some radical leftist approval. I only wish the other limo-liberal American CEO’s would learn the lesson of compromising with the commies. Share holders should wake up. Unless they are in the business of gay sex, their CEO’s are way too invested in radical craziness.

A study was once done, where it was calculated that the entire population of the planet could comfortably fit inside the borders of Texas, divided into units of no more than three people, each living in standard three bedroom houses.

Trust me, we've got plenty of room :-)

49
posted on 02/25/2013 9:36:14 PM PST
by Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)

People with less than average knowledge about a subject should not post opinions or erroneous facts about that subject on any forum. They should lurk and learn rather than add confusion and misinformation.

Gee, maybe you can get JimRob to craft a new rule to that effect. Why, he oughta just ban people for having the audacity to comment on subjects in which they're not expert!

Why stop at the grammar, punctuation, and spelling police? We need to have the terminology police, and they need to be deputized with their own zot guns, dadgumit!!

50
posted on 02/25/2013 9:41:26 PM PST
by Windflier
(To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)

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